September 2014

Communication is all about strategy. Customer-to-business communication, employee-to-employee communication, company-wide communication…all of these interactions can be analyzed and optimized to benefit the company. Now, with cloud based communication networks, companies can store all of their data and scale easier than ever before. Companies need to develop a centralized communication management strategy to go along with it.

One of the buzziestbusinesswords of the past year has been “omnichannel.” If you think it sounds kind of familiar, you’re right: it’s a lot like multichannel. Despite the supposed similarity, however, they don’t mean the exact same thing. While both words’ prefixes are based in Latin, multi means “more than one” or “many” while omni means “all” or “every.”

Applying this knowledge to the contact center industry, multichannel means offering customers different ways of communicating, like SMS or voice. These channels are usually siloed, meaning they aren’t connected to one another and don’t pass data between them. With omnichannel, everything is connected—customers can receive seamless, continuous support on any channel if and when they switch back and forth.

Quality customer service is one of the most important parts of your company’s infrastructure. A recent American Express Survey discovered that 78% of consumers decided not to go through with a purchase because of poor customer service. It’s essential to keep current customers happy; Marketing Metrics says someone who has purchased from you in the past is about three times as likely to make a purchase from you as a new prospect.

You’ve been able to call a business and text a business. Now, prepare to MMS a business.

With Twilio’s new MMS, businesses can now send and receive multimedia files on standard U.S. phone numbers. OneReach strengthens this service by adding MMS to existing voice and text flows; customers can download files like help guides without needing to reach an agent.

A screen pop is exactly what you’d think it is—a notification that appears on your screen when someone calls you. Despite its simple name, it’s actually a pretty advanced technology. Instead of just displaying a caller’s name, screen pops can draw from software you’re already using to display a customer’s service history, including past appointments and correspondences.

For years, contact centers have measured performance by ASA (average speed of answer). An ASA under 60 seconds is considered successful, but today’s customers are used to instant access. Having to wait even ten more seconds could be enough for a customer to drop the call.

The following provides a rough outline of what needs to be considered when implementing text messaging services in a contact center or business. While some of these items may seem daunting they can actually be completed pretty quickly depending on the size and scope of the implementation.

Whenever people call a business, they want information; they don’t necessarily want to speak with someone. By forcing callers to go through a complicated phone tree, wait on hold before speaking with someone, or being asked to visit a website, the callers is being forced to go through extra steps that result in feelings of frustration. In fact, 81% of customers feel frustrated being tied to a phone or computer for customer support. By allowing the caller to opt-out of a complicated voice experience and into a more convenient channel such as SMS, you can show your customers that you honor their preferences.